Before German Annika Abraham arrived in Australia to work as an au pair, her host family had been emailing her for six months, sending care packages with Australiana such as Vegemite, exchanging photos and calling to wish her happy birthday.
"We wanted to form a relationship with Annika and her family," host mother Amanda Buckland said. As well as living with Ms Buckland and her husband Matthew, AIFS Au Pair Ms Abraham would be caring for their daughter Lucy when Ms Buckland returned to work.
"Having an au pair is about the warm, loving environment I wanted to create for my family, it's us making Annika a part of our family," Ms Buckland said.
But not all Australians treat their au pairs the same way. As au pairs become an increasingly popular childcare solution, there are growing reports of some hosts using them as cheap labour rather than treating them as an extra member of the family.
"The whole idea of au pair is cultural exchange," Ms Buckland said. "I'm aware of some families that treat it more as a business transaction, as cheap childcare."
A Fairfax Media investigation has discovered that, in the absence of any regulations for au pair arrangements in Australia, some au pairs are being underpaid, overworked and left vulnerable to instant dismissal, and even homelessness and assault.
To better protect both au pairs and the families that host them, the Cultural Au Pair Association of Australia is pushing for the federal government to introduce a specific au pair visa to regulate working conditions and the rights of both au pairs and host families.
The US already has such a visa, which stipulates host families must pay their au pairs a minimum weekly amount, not ask them to perform more than 45 hours of childcare a week, and give one full weekend off a month and two paid weeks' holiday a year. Families must also provide their au pair with a suitable private room of their own and include the au pair in family meals, outings and holidays.
"An agency-sponsored au pair visa underpinned with a robust regulatory framework will ensure that hosting an au pair is a safe and rewarding experience," CAPAA president Wendi Aylward said. "Every family has the right to expect this."
The industry association has already been successful in securing a six-month extension to the working holiday visa for au pairs so they can stay with the same family for a year.
It is understood that there is no intention to create a specific visa for au pairs. The government's focus is on skilled workers and simplifying the visa system.
Employers who exploited foreign workers could be investigated and penalised by the Fair Work Ombudsman. The government had also established Taskforce Cadena to crackdown on such exploitation.
UTS law lecturer Laurie Berg, who is researching the working conditions of au pairs in Australia, believes the government should regulate au pair arrangements.
"What the mutual expectations are, what is a reasonable amount of [work] hours, what is a reasonable amount of pocket money," Dr Berg said. "The scheme needs to express a balance between a cultural exchange and childcare labour. At the moment placements meander between the two."
To bolster its case for an au pair visa, CAPAA is surveying all the families on its books to get concrete data on how and why au pairs are being used in Australia.
Ms Buckland supports regulating the au pair industry. "The focus of the regulations should be to promote the cultural exchange and provide security and certainty to the families and girls involved," she said.